A First Look at Nixon Library : Walk through: Yorba Linda residents on a tour of the presidential facility remember a native son who went on to become President.

On Sunday, it almost didn’t matter how Richard M. Nixon’s presidency ended. What mattered more to the civic leaders and their guests during a private tour of the Richard M. Nixon Library and Birthplace is that a native son started from humble beginnings here and went on to become president of the United States.

The tour was staged, four days before the official library dedication, to thank the people of Yorba Linda for years of hard work to make the library a reality, said Hugh Hewitt, executive director of the Library Foundation.

It was also to thank the town for its loyalty.

“It’s like a dream come true,” said Bill Drake, a foundation committee member who said he has worked for 22 years to make the former president’s birthplace a historical landmark.

“There are some people who will remember Watergate and that deal, but I think for the most part people in Yorba Linda have absolved him of that.”

While Nixon, the featured star, was not present at the tour, he sent a letter that was read to the crowd as they feasted on Mexican food and margaritas.

“In the next few days the air will be full of big names--Presidents, First Ladies, Secretaries of State. But Mrs. Nixon and I are glad to have this opportunity to say thank you to the real VIPS, the mayor and city council, the officials and most of all the people of the City of Yorba Linda,” he wrote. “You are a small city with big arms and big hearts and the entire Nixon family is deeply grateful for your hospitality, patience and hard work.

“In this most important of aspects--the quality and the character of its people--Yorba Linda is the same community I left 68 years ago,” he wrote.

The letter was signed simply, “RN.”

And Nixon would not have been disappointed by the way he is remembered by those in his hometown.

Said John Watroba, a Yorba Linda planning commissioner: “I think he will go down in history as one of best presidents we’ve ever had and I’d vote for him again tomorrow.”

For many, the tour brought back memories of a time not too long ago, when Nixon already belonged to the nation, and not just to Yorba Linda.

“It’s fantastic, really beautiful,” said Yorba Linda pharmacist Jack Myers as he left the library.

“The most moving part was the nostalgia with the early days,” he said. “I can remember listening to the 1960 early campaign returns (on the radio), and I remember going to bed and thinking Nixon had won.”

Afterward, some who had walked through the museum and birthplace called the exhibits “impressive,” “balanced” and “thorough.”

The exhibit of world leaders, with its life-size statues of such contemporaries of Nixon as Mao Zedong, Winston Churchill, Golda Meir and Leonid I. Brezhnev, was popular with Sunday’s crowd. Many posed for pictures beside the statues.

Marna Wilson, a member of the city’s traffic commission, said she liked the statues.

“I think the height of the world leaders is really surprising,” she said. “Khrushchev, for instance. I might be taller than he is.”

City Atty. Leonard Hampel, who has worked for the city since its incorporation 20 years ago, said the library “fits the style of the city. It’s friendly, effective and generally low-key.”

Peter Gomez, a computer operator for Shell Oil, said of the ex-president: “He screwed up, but who hasn’t? I think people that hate him will come, and people that like him will really come (to the library and birthplace).”

Susan Bacha, another resident, found the exhibits kind to the ex-president.

“It’s definitely biased but that’s what you would expect,” she said.

After he purchased T-shirts with the Nixon Library logo at the gift shop, Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said the library will be a boost for the entire county.

“It shows that someone from Orange County can be president,” he said. “Nixon’s a member of this community, and that’s inspirational.”

Outside, hundreds of white chairs and two bleachers were already lined up neatly in the parking lot for Thursday’s dedication.

People who had not been invited to Sunday’s event walked past the clean lines of the new building, some of them wearing shorts and sunglasses and pushing baby carriages, gazing curiously in through the windows.

“People have got to understand that he did a lot of good, too,” said Karen Ritchie, a native of Yorba Linda who at 21 can barely remember Watergate. “I don’t think people should dwell on the fact that he did some really terrible things. He is a part of Yorba Linda. He was the president, and he makes us proud.”

Times staff writers Tom McQueeney and Laura Michaelis contributed to this story.

* THE MONEY TREE

Nixon loyalists came through with funding for library. A1

* EX-PRESS SECRETARY

Ron Ziegler questioned. A20

* POWER LUNCH

4 Presidents to dine. E1